Tuesday, 6 May 2014

Freud Breakfast

On this day in 1856 Sigmund Freud was born. People either
like, even revere, Freud, or dislike and even denigrate him and his works. The
latter have usually not read much of what he wrote, and often have grotesque
Daily Mail-ish ideas about him. True, in the English Standard Edition,
translated mostly by John Strachey, (brother of Lytton), Freud’s works run to
some two dozen fat volumes. Those who have not read him might like to try his
‘The Interpretation of Dreams’, first published in 1900. (Well, some say it was
1899.) They will be in for a treat: it is one of the most rich, entertaining
and witty books ever written.

In June 1938 — only just in time — Freud was packing his
bags in Vienna ready to go to England, (in those days England often welcomed
foreigners fleeing persecution) when two burly SS officers turned up and stood
over him as he read the paper they had brought with them: a declaration that he
had not been ill-treated by the Nazis. Having no choice he signed it, but
rightly reckoning that they were too thick to understand irony he added ‘I
heartily recommend the SS to everybody’. Freud died in London just over a year
later as the Second World War was starting.